Siam Spencer, edited by Gauthier Delomez
modified to
6:50 a.m., February 14, 2022
It is a disease that does not make the headlines in the newspapers, and yet it is the leading cause of infertility in France. About 2.5 million women of childbearing age suffer from endometriosis, a chronic, inflammatory gynecological disease. This is the case of Morgane, 28 years old. Met by Europe 1, the young woman explains that she was diagnosed at 26, after 13 years of suffering. In his daily life, his pain is still minimized. “It’s okay, it’s still only period pain, don’t complain too much”, reports Morgane at the microphone of Europe 1.
The difficulty of understanding relatives and the medical profession
“I was told ‘You want to have a fashionable disease’ or ‘It’s in your head’. Except that no, these are pains that are more than real”, continues the young woman, emphasizing that this is translated for her by “a belly that swells like the belly of a pregnant woman. I have already been offered a seat on the bus because they thought I was pregnant when not at all”, says- she.
Morgane talks about the difficulty those close to her had in understanding her illness: “At first, those around me did not understand. It was only when they saw me writhing in pain on the ground and vomiting because of the pain I ‘they started taking my complaints seriously.” The young woman also indicates that when the diagnosis was made, she was “very angry”: “No one had taken my word for several years in the medical profession and in my entourage. It’s a double-edged sword when the diagnosis is made, you say to yourself: ‘phew, I know that’s it now…’, then right after ‘ah that’s it, but I’m sick’.”
A painful and difficult treatment
Morgane is now on antidepressant treatment, a drug that serves as a palliative by reducing the symptoms of endometriosis without curing it. Even if it reduces pain, this treatment causes many other inconveniences: “Chronic fatigue that we take very lightly, but as soon as I take my medicine, I can’t do anything. Even go to the toilet, it becomes a chore. I can no longer drink alcohol either with this treatment for example”, she explains at the microphone of Europe 1.
Morgane adds that she feels “pain in the legs, it’s nausea because pain, at some point, it turns the stomach, it’s having back pain”.
“(Endometriosis) has an impact on everything”, laments the young woman
At the microphone of Europe 1, the young woman also specifies that these crises do not occur only during her period. “It has an impact on everything”, she breathes, “on lessons, on work, on intimate life a lot. What is difficult is to have a body that does not work”. Morgane further asserts that suffering from endometriosis, “it’s also all the problems related to fertility. In fact, it’s a disease that hurts. And we can’t be looked down on, we can’t be looked down on. sending us home with medicine. It’s time for that to change, really.”
Morgane intends to train as a “patient-expert”. Few people are trained to recognize endometriosis. To overcome this lack, she wants to take this training to support as many people as possible. Furthermore, the president Emmanuel Macron announced in early January the launch of a national strategy to fight this disease. A first interministerial steering committee meets on Monday to look into a real policy for the fight against endometriosis.
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